Right moves, wrong results for White Sox

August 14, 2001|By Sam Smith.

Did you ever wonder why sports columnists do not write in the forest? If they insult and ridicule someone and there is no one there to hear about it, does it count?

Apparently not. Have you ever noticed an unhappier bunch of people than sports columnists? Angry at someone all the time. Demanding people be fired. Exasperated, cynical, frustrated. You would think they paid for their seats.

And in this noble profession of journalism where so many of us live by the words of Mark Twain: "Get your facts first. Then you can distort them as you please."

This comes to mind when thinking about the White Sox of 2001.

They did everything right--and got worse. Which really ruins a good story because all good yarns need a villain.

Success is easy to understand in sports. You see which teams won and congratulate them for their brilliance. Look how smart the Seattle Mariners are. Let's see: They traded away Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. and couldn't re-sign Alex Rodriguez. They became better each year.

OK, that might not be the perfect model to follow. We know the Bears are stupid. How do we know? Because they lose. And we know the New York Yankees are smart. Because they win, of course.

We know Phil Jackson is smarter than George Karl. How? Because Jackson has eight titles as a pro coach and Karl has none. Then how did Karl have a better record with Albany of the CBA than Jackson?

May have to get back to you on that one.

So here are the White Sox coming off their best season in nearly a decade in 2000. They won the Central Division but lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Mariners.

Good teams, we all know, don't accept success. They try to improve upon it.

The White Sox weren't perfect and noticed some weaknesses. They needed a No. 1 starter, a 20-game winner-type pitcher. They needed to improve their infield defense. They could use some help in middle relief. And knowing they couldn't keep Scott Boras client Charles Johnson, they needed a catcher.

But they didn't want to break up the core that just gained its first true success.

Yet they pulled it off. They managed to deal Mike Sirotka, a nice pitcher but hardly a star, for David Wells, a 20-game winner in 2000. Wells was the classic horse for a pitching staff, a thoroughbred who could carry a rotation. OK, he was a risk with back problems. But he was one of baseball's best pitchers the last five years.

The Sox scored plenty of runs, but they gave back quite a few, mostly at shortstop, where Jose Valentin was a valuable hitter. There's that old baseball bromide about strength up the middle--and not sitting too close to the exploding scoreboard.

So the Sox moved after the Texas Rangers bought Rodriguez. Texas had one of the American League's best defensive shortstops in Royce Clayton. He wasn't about to play much shortstop with Rodriguez in town, and Rodriguez could buy his own backups.

So for minor-leaguer Aaron Myette, the Sox picked up Clayton. They traded for reliever Antonio Osuna. They bought free-agent veteran catcher Sandy Alomar. They filled several needs at relatively little expense.

And then they forgot to cross their fingers while holding a four-leaf clover and a rabbit's foot on top of their rally cap.

Osuna sustained a shoulder injury. Clayton, a career .258 hitter who averaged 14 home runs the last two seasons, couldn't hit a thing for two months. Frank Thomas bent over and split his career. It was particularly stupid of the Sox to allow that to happen. Couldn't they have seen Thomas would get hurt that day? Whose idea was it to let him go outside?

So everyone began trying harder and, predictably, those tough games against good teams became even tougher to win with no one to ease the pressure in the middle of the lineup, the middle of the media horde and the middle of the season.

Then Wells, who had finished his bottle of stupid pills after condemning Thomas for not playing hurt, had back surgery and is out for the season.

Of course it's obvious the White Sox should have signed Ichiro, and Manny Ramirez and Nomo and Mussina and Jose Vidro. I'm taking names. How could they be so dumb? It was obvious what they had to do. Any sportswriter could see that.